6 YEARS OF PTSD GONE IN ONE SESSION

The session went as follows:
I’ll call the Sergeant George. He said he had been on two
tours in Iraq
and one in Afghanistan.

I asked what symptoms were bothering him. He said he
couldn’t sleep and “everything bothers me’. He rated that as a 5. (I questioned
that to myself but let it go because I knew that that wasn’t what I would be
working with.)

Pat: “What happens when you can’t sleep?”

George: “I am just upset about everything and fearful about a
lot of things.”

P “Is there a particular memory from your tours that is most
invasive?”

G “Absolutely. There was this one route that was taboo. If
you took it you were gonna get hit. It was the main supply route of the
insurgents. One day we took that route. There were 15 of us in 3 tanks. When we approached
that dangerous place, one of the tanks got hit. We could hear our peers
screaming. One man was able to get out. The other tank went to see if they
could help and they got hit. We went to help the soldier who had gotten out.
Each time we tried to lift him, a body part would fall off so we left him alone
and just guarded him. As the med-evac approached, we left to go back to base. 9
men in all were lost and one was very badly wounded.
He was very emotional during the entire story but then he
started really weeping and said. ”The worst part is that I can’t remember what
they look like.”

P Did you feel guilty that you had survived?G (very emotional) Yes.He told me that it was a 10.

We tapped on the Karate Chop point.“Even though I lost 9 of my buddies, I still accept myself.Even though I feel guilty that they died and I didn’t, I
still accept myself.Even though I feel guilty that we tried to help but
couldn’t, I’m still a good guy.I feel guilty that they died.I feel guilty that I survived.I lost 9 of my buddies.I feel guilty that I couldn’t do anything.I continued with these phrases through the sequence and did
the nine gamut to make sure that the right and left brain were engaged.

I asked him what physiological sensations he experienced in
his body. George told me that the tension in his shoulders was gone and his
back felt more relaxed. I asked if any other emotions came up. He said no. Then
I asked if any other thoughts flashed through his mind and he responded no. The
“survivor’s guilt” was down to a 4.

I the asked if he thought that this process was pretty
weird. He said yes. So we did a round of tapping on “this is weird.”Even though this is weird, I still accept myself.Even though it seems silly that tapping could reduce my
guilt, I still accept myselfEven though I feel a little silly, I still accept myself.(At this point I avoided, “I deeply and completely love and
accept myself” because I was working with military who had been in combat and
thought that might alienate him.)After a round if tapping, “This seems silly. I feel weird, how
could this possibly work? Etc.” I went on with tapping on the guilt.

We repeated a similar setup from the first round and the
same tapping statements. He came down from a 4 to a 3. Then he said, “We should
have protested more.” I asked him to tell me more about that. He said when the
commander told them to take that route, they should have protested more. The
guilt that they hadn’t protested more was a 10. I got an insight to switch to
this guilt and it would lower the other.

Even though we knew the route was taboo and we didn’t
protest I am still a good guy.(George had trouble saying “I am still a good guy”. I filed
it away for later.)Even though I feel guilty that we didn’t protest taking that
route, I still accept myself.Even though I feel guilty that we didn’t protest taking that
route, I still accept myself.We should have protested.We lost nine soldiers because we didn’t protest.I feel guilty that we didn’t protest.If I had protested, they might still be alive.I feel so guilty; it’s my entire fault they died.We didn’t protest hard enough.I continued these phrases around all the points. After this
round on guilt that they hadn’t protested hard enough he was now a 2. We did
one more round on this and his guilt that they hadn’t protested was down to a
0. I asked him about the guilt that he had survived and that was now also a 0.
He had such a beautiful smile.

I told him that I noticed his difficulty in saying, “I’m a
good guy” and we did a round on that.Even though it’s hard for me to say I’m a good guy, I accept
myself.Even though it’s hard for me to think I’m a good guy when I
lost my buddies, I deeply and completely love and accept myself., exactly as I
am, and exactly as I’m not.We did a whole round on I’m a good guy.I did what I could.I’m a good guy. He became very emotional again (actually
through most of the session)I didn’t test a number because I could see the relief on his
face.

I inquired if he had felt fearful as they had continued down
the road back to the base. It was a 10. Even though I was afraid that we were going to get it too, I
accept myself.Even though I was afraid that they were going to hit us too,
I accept myself.Even though I was afraid that we were going to die too, I
accept myself.I was afraid we were going to die, too.Afraid we were going to die.I was afraid.This fear has been living in my body for 6 years.I may not recognize who I am without this fear.Continued the round around all the points.

His fear was down to a 3. Then he said. I don’t feel ashamed
anymore. I asked what number he thought his shame was and he said it was a 2. I
asked him what he thought it was before we started and he said a 10.

We did another round on the fear and brought it down to a 0.
Along with the fear that they might die, I also included things like:I am afraid for my finances.I am afraid for my wife and kids.It’s safe for me to feel safe.I don’t need this fear any more.It’s safe for me to feel safe.He had mentioned in our initial conversation that they were
some of the things keeping him awake. Even though I knew that it was the trauma
of battle, I included these in the last round.

Then we did a round on the shame.Even though I was ashamed that all those men died, I still
accept myself.Even though I am ashamed that I lived, I still accept
myself.Even though I am ashamed that we didn’t protest more, I
still accept myself.I still have some of this shame.This remaining shame.Remaining shame.I choose to release this shame.I don’t need it any more.The shame was down to a 0. George was visibly relieved and
he thanked me profusely for the work that we did. I asked the captain how long
we had been working on the session and he told me 45 minutes. 6 years of PTSD
gone in 45 minutes! The world needs to know about this, especially for our
soldiers.

Today, I called the captain to get George’s number and he
was with him. He put him on the phone. I asked George how he felt and he
instantly replied, “Terrific. Last night while I was sleeping, my wife had to
put her hand on my chest. She said she hadn’t seen me sleep so peacefully in
years.”

BTW, when someone has had such a cathartic session, I always
check with them the next day to make sure that they are feeling well and
nothing else came up to deal with.

It was an honor and privilege to work with a “wounded
warrior”. Hopefully we’ll have a breakthrough with the VA and the services in
the very near future so we can properly serve those who have so valiantly
served us.